Reassessments: Women of a certain Age

Forget the swinging 60s. Here's a study that suggests "girl power" was born 600 years ago. Yesterday, Sue Niebrzydowski from Bangor University in Wales told a university conference that women in the Middle Ages had a fine time, with greater independence and life expectancy than men. "We found women running priories, commissioning books, taking early package tours to visit the Holy Land," she said.

"Women were often widowed by the age of 30 and it gave them greater freedom."

The study examined books, songs and legal documents to build up a picture of life for women between the 12th and 15th centuries. "We assume that women in the past had little economic independence or social power and that they were reliant on fathers or husbands for most of their lives," Niebrzydowski said. "But we should be wary of holding too many misconceptions about women's lives in the past. It is true that most of the information we have is drawn from art, literature or historical records which relate to wealthier women, but middle-aged women in the Middle Ages had far more power and independence than we might first imagine."